Much is at stake as the long-anticipated trial begins for Cliven Bundy, two of his two sons and a supporter with militia ties -- the main figures accused of rallying armed supporters to the family’s Nevada ranch in 2014 in a standoff that launched a movement against federal control of public land in the West. As opening statements begin Tuesday, the trial will mark the second attempt by the government to send Ammon and Ryan Bundy to prison on serious conspiracy and weapons charges. The family’s confrontation with officers from the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, with citizen snipers perched on hilltops and an overpass, forced the armed rangers to flee. They were cornered on a desert expanse near the Bundy Ranch in Bunkerville as they tried to enforce court orders to remove nearly 1,000 Bundy cattle from grazing on what is now Gold Butte National Monument. Now as the main event starts this week, prosecutors here face immense pressure to send a searing message that has eluded them so far: that people can’t take the law into their own hands and threaten federal officers with guns, whether they disagree with cattle grazing laws or federal control of public land. “It’s the feds’ last opportunity to get it right,’’ said Kieran Suckling, executive director of the Center for Biological Diversity, a nonprofit that works to protect endangered species and wild land. If another acquittal results, the Bundys’ success will buoy anti-government activists and provide a “green light to more violent armed attacks on America’s public lands and their staff,’’ Suckling said. Ian Bartrum, a constitutional law professor at the William S. Boyd School of Law at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas, said if the “big shots” get off, “it would seem to suggest the federal government can’t prosecute even clear-cut federal crimes related to their land policy.’’ There’s plenty in the balance for the Bundys, as well. Cliven Bundy and his sons have been locked up for nearly two years since their arrests in Oregon. Authorities nabbed the elder Bundy on Feb. 10, 2016, as he got off a plane in Portland to visit his sons. Two weeks earlier, Ammon and Ryan Bundy had been arrested leaving the refuge and a day later the occupation ended. If convicted, the three could face decades in prison, a sentence that could put Cliven Bundy, 71, behind bars for the rest of his life. Michele Fiore, a Las Vegas council member and former Nevada assemblywoman who has been an outspoken advocate for the Bundys and their cause, said the trial will no less determine the direction of the country. It encompasses the right to assemble, the right to protest the government and the right to bear arms, she said. “Our First and Second Amendments will be dictated by this trial,’’ Fiore said. “If they were ever to be convicted, it would send a message that you are totally under the control of the government and don’t ever question your government.’’...more
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